Erdington mum scared she’s going to lose her home sets up crowdfunding appeal for

Popular children’s author BB Taylor lives in a veritable menagerie full of more than 100 rare and exotic animals she has rescued and nurtured back to health in her Erdington semi.

Snakes and lizards live happily alongside eagle owls, skunks and racoons and, with 20 books under her belt and a huge book tour planned, all was good for the purple-haired storyteller.

Then, the coronavirus pandemic struck, her book tour was cancelled and her husband’s work came to a stop. Then their landlord said they needed to move out and the family were sent into a panic wondering what they would do with all their animals.

The above video shows BB Taylor at one of our Brummie Mummies Socials at Thinktank.

They’ve managed to re-house or loan out around 75 animals but a further 25 remain that simply cannot be rehomed due to old age and temperament.

BB has sold everything she owns to try to make ends meet, from the family car and computers to their clothes and possessions.

The family has been struggling to find another landlord willing to take them on with such unusual pets and, unable to contemplate the thought of having to have the animals put down, one of BB’s friends suggested she launch a crowdfunder.

In exchange for donations, BB and her writer friends have pledged to ‘pay it forward’ by doing visits to schools in deprived areas for free once restrictions were lifted.

And, so far, to BB’s amazement, they have raised more than £4,000 on the crowdfunding site. They’re hoping to raise enough money to buy a dilapidated house at auction that they can renovate themselves.

“When Pete’s work and my work halted, we could have just plodded on through hunkering down,” said BB, whose real name is Melissa Bowen. Her husband Pete, works in fire security and CCTV and their children are Taylor, 13, and Bailey, seven, affectionately known as Squish and Boodles in BB’s work.

“When we knew we had to leave, we started selling everything to try to raise money to buy a house at auction. We can’t find a landlord that will allow our animals. Our last landlord was fine with it but now he wants to sell the property, which I do understand.”

She added: “A writer friend suggested we set up a crowdfunder. We’ll be visiting deprived schools and giving signed books and postcards as a way of paying it forward for all the donations made.

“I will be keeping a live diary of everywhere I go. People can pledge towards school visits or claim one of the rewards available.”

BB says she and her family have until the end of August to try to find somewhere to live after which time she dreads to think what will happen to her animals.

“We’ve seen properties going up for £5,000 at auction,” said BB, who has a new book out called The Vigilante Tooth Fairy.

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